Ratchet & Clank Future Retrospective & Development Deep Dive

[@TheGoldenBolt]

*A CRACK IN TIME RETROSPECTIVE:* kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZPdqoengc-lqdE Thank you so much for sharing your time with me today! Hopefully you've enjoyed this deep dive as much as I've enjoyed making it - if you have, do the KZbin things and make sure to subscribe for future videos, share it around, give me validation. If you're feeling especially kind, you can support at www.patreon.com/TheGoldenBolt and get access to early videos and updates, the exclusive Golden Bolt Discord server, you can help me decide on future topics to cover, and so on! But if you can't or you'd rather not, that's cool too! And as a reminder, my follow-up to this on A Crack in Time will be a short bit off! I have another project I want to put out first. (And fun fact, while the I've had the gameplay recorded for the first 5 Ratchet games since around the start of 2021 or sooner...I haven't started Crack in Time's gameplay process yet!)

[@tytris203]

Angela Cross was being hunted by tachyon before tools of destruction. She joined up with the treasure hunter (Talwyn's father) and together they mysteriously disappeared after landing on Jasindu(Where the dimensionator was). Likely both she and Mr. Apogee escaped to the lombax dimension in an attempt to avoid tachyon. There, now you know what happened with that plot hole. It bothered me alot until it was off-handedly explained in a news story in a crack in time.

[@woody4077]

as for angela....... with rift apart being released insomaniac has pretty much said "angela cross is NOT a lombax" edited : if angela is a lombax then why does insomaniac refer to rivet "as the first female lombax in the series"

[@logankerr7836]

@The Golden Bolt. Your videos are always awesome. But I I was was curious as to why you skipped the other ratchet games that came out between deadlocked and tod? As I recall size matters and secret agent clank are a part of the timeline if I’m not mistaken. If not please explain to me. Can’t wait to see your next video.

[@XraviaEdge]

I thought the entire point behind the emperor being bufoonish is because it leads people to underestimate him leading him to get away with alot more because he doesn't pose a significant threat. Like how Qwark subverts the typical hero, the emperor acts as the chosen one villain.

[@tylerdunnan5059]

I like to think Sunset overdrive was a threat to Sony that insomniac could work with Microsoft after the nightmare that was ratchet and clank future.

[@weirdotzero7065]

Not gonna lie, that line "And suddenly some pirates arrived" gave me the same energy as "Somehow Palpatine Returned".

[@TheGoldenBolt]

Oh dear God, you're right

[@Brindlebrother]

Writers: "I don't know, should we really bring uncy Palps back this far into the saga? Palps: "ᵈᵉʷ ᶦᵗ"

[@Zzzlol94]

Except they didn’t have to resurrect a character that should’ve definitely died. Twice.

[@JohnSmith-ox3gy]

"Rocks fall, everyone dies."

[@civilwarfare101]

Metal Gear resurrected a major villain through an attached limb and then retconned it to be nanomachines but of course, no one is allowed to insult MGS.

[@henfjo]

No matter what opinion one might have of the future games. it's still incredible to see the effort that went into creating these games. It's always a massive challenge to create a game. And it is still amazing to see all the work that went into this.

[@Cykelpump33]

AcIT is GOAT material, idc what anyone says.

[@triledink]

@@Cykelpump33 A Crack In Time is in my opinion the greatest Ratchet and Clank game of all time and even one of the best games of all time.

[@fillerbunnyninjashark271]

But none of the future games felt like a complete ratchet and clank game... The music sucked too

[@Cykelpump33]

@@fillerbunnyninjashark271 Ok elitist

[@fillerbunnyninjashark271]

@@Cykelpump33 🥴

[@personwholovesailorm]

"I'm sad the gelinator never returned after tools" --goes into a small tangent about how the gelinator can be used to go out of bounds or break the game which is Sony's biggest no-no when it comes to releasing games--

[@TheGoldenBolt]

I never said I didn't _understand_ why it didn't come back! I just enjoy breaking things

[@Debatra.]

@@PlebNC Hold my Razor Claws.

[@KaiserMattTygore927]

I miss when games actually let you play the game instead of force out any kind of emergent gameplay for the sake of "polish"

[@thesun5275]

@@PlebNC there are plenty of games that arent RPG loot grinds, but a lot of people enjoy those games and it is why the market is skewed to them. But if you look for 5 seconds you will see plenty of games that arent that. Your bitching is stupid and pointless and just shows you're too lazy to actually look around for games.

[@KaiserMattTygore927]

@@PlebNC I'll take an actual video game over shitty fucking padded always online experiences or completely hollow roller coaster ride/movie style 2 hour experiences Any and every day of the week. I don't play games to watch movies, that's what movies are for.

[@jakehorvitz]

My dad does the voice of the Zoni in this game, and so I was asked (as a then 10 year old) to come in for a beta test run of Quest for Booty. Among the focus group I was the only one who was highly critical of the game -- expressing shock at its length and honestly just general inferiority to normal Ratchet products. I still remember the Insomniac staff's near total shock at my criticisms -- idk why they thought gamers would be so oblivious to the flaws on this title, but I think that was sort of their whole approach as a studio at that time i.e. "distract them with enough cool stuff that they won't notice the plot holes, glitches, weak mechanics, etc.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

Huh, what a small world! I haven't had the chance to chat with many of the series' focus testers since...well as you know, a lot of the focus groups were the children of those involved in the projects already, so thanks for sharing this story with us! I have heard a couple similar comments from folks involved in production - that a few of the upper brass types at the time were perhaps too insulated and didn't immediately grasp or accept critical feedback.

[@coreylineberry8557]

No way. You're Richard Steven Horvitz' son? That's awesome! Love your dad's work.

[@BBWahoo]

I'm going to hazard a guess and say they ultimately took your critique to heart, it's not often you have someone give a take so candid, so out of left field, that it leaves the production staff in a state of temporary shock. I love your dads work btw, zim, billy and raz all wouldn't leave as strong an impression without your old mans signature raspy voice, very unique. 👏

[@jeferodriguez7136]

Your dad is one of my voice acting idols

[@ProsecutorZekrom]

I liked the game personally. It was a short one, but not that expensive to balance it out. The pirates were one of the best parts of TOD imo. There was a lot of variety here, with the standouts being hoolefar island, which put the focus on platforming and puzzles, and the dark morrow caverns with those walkways over bottomless pits. I would have been about that age (10) when I first played it. Didn’t notice any glitches, and I thought the new mechanics were good as they returned in CIT (the wrench’s ability to move things, and pick things up). Were there plot holes? I don’t remember any.

[@siphillis]

It's interesting to view Insomniac functioning like every other poorly-run AAA studio knowing how they've become the gold-standard today. I'd like to know what caused them to change, and how they pulled it off.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

The one thing I've tried to hammer in throughout this retrospective saga (and now that I'm thinking about it, I didn't exactly hammer it as well this time, oops), is that there's been a constantly evolving process at Insomniac to become better project managers. I know I used Ted Price's comment a bit snarkily as a joke at one point, but it seems unanimous that Tools was their smoothest production yet in spite of its issues, and that Resistance was the smoothest yet before that, and that (probably with the exception of QfB and CiT) every major project after that was handled better and more healthily than the one before it. It's why I try to present that info as more of a statement than a critique, because the studio has seemingly proven time and again that they're always trying to get better, even if they fall into some of the same pitfalls a couple times before it sticks.

[@javiergimenez40]

I think you are mistaken. if you check what was said, most of the things that were said was not that they were poorly managed(we don't have time, let's remove it even before we start. anyone who has worked as a programmer knows that's the opposite of poorly managed), but instead a hole in the writting department that broke anything. THESE GUYS WERE CONCURRENTLY MAKING 4 GAMES A YEAR!!!!! would you be even able to IMAGINE Naughty Dog doing something like that???? in fact, most of the gameplay seems to be just fine in the own video. Ok, the armor sucks, so what? all games have defects. also they still allowed for creativity, the starfox missions, even if they are starfox missions, would be unthinkable nowadays for example. You can point fingers in every project of everything, that doesn't mean that it's a bad game. the poor writter just had an insane task without enough people behind it. Never forget what happens when a writter changes mid history. Even loving the last jedi as myself, I cannot deny that not having a planned trilogy was a f*cking stupid idea, AND THIS GUY HAD TO DO IT. Give them a break

[@thenewmev.2077]

@@javiergimenez40insomniac has always been one of the best developers calm down bro

[@jamesbrincefield9879]

This will always be my favorite Ratchet and Clank game. I totally understand the issues people have with it and it’s far from a perfect game, I just don’t care. It’s a lot of fun and I’ve beaten it more times than I can count. I remember playing it for the first time like two years after the PS3 launched and I had played a ton of other games and it was still the best looking PS3 game I had ever seen. It still looks amazing in my opinion and it’s just as fun as it was the first time I played it.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

At the end of the day, _that's_ what matters! I can talk about development or break down stuff critically, but the point universally remains that I'm giving these breakdowns because I like all of the games - and my no-frills analytical take doesn't always align with what my deep-down lizard brain thinks (which is usually "game good yay").

[@jamesbrincefield9879]

@@TheGoldenBolt when looking at them with an analytical eye you can poke massive holes in most games. Nothing’s perfect (besides Spelunky), but the sum of a game’s parts generally outweigh most singular problems for me. Even “bad” games usually have some unique and interesting ideas, they were just too ambitious for the hardware or the team making it. It’s only when those problems start to really stack up that games lose that sense of fun. If every game was a masterpiece we wouldn’t be able to appreciate the ones that really knock it out of the park.

[@vicedm1145]

Music is among the best I’ve ever heard also tbh. Paul fucking Hardcastle is a legend

[@aninfinitemindofmusicandreams]

@@vicedm1145 The ending song for ToD, the one that sounds like a Daft Punk song gives me all the feels. I can't listen to it these days without immediately feeling nostalgia for the days I had my PS3. This was among the first couple of games I bought for it after I got my PS3 in 07.

[@Rachebart]

When i played the trilogie first i cant like tools of destruction that much. It felt to me like a soft reboot. Where is the Phoenix where are the other characters ? Ratchets Design looks so ugly to me. The Story i liked it.

[@DJDarkDarsi]

I adore the lines of "When aren't they heavily armed" and "*clank giggle* Laser Grids"

[@mrlowkey4187]

So fun fact, apparently when the Smuggler said he got the Gyro-sphere from a Lombax, he actually got it from Kayden, Ratchet’s father. The game does absolutely nothing with this.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

That was an angle I originally had scripted out, too! I ended up cutting it with a couple other side points since they're random dropped opportunities of little substance, and I didn't want to go COMPLETELY in the weeds when my point was already more than made by that point. I'm sure there are even others like this that you and I have both missed or forgotten, too! I love the Future saga but man, if you dig into it at all, it's Swiss cheese sometimes

[@xero1048]

I actually loved the cliff hanger as a kid. I remember going back and playing the game over and over again to try and figure out what happened to clank.

[@iranoutofusernameideas7438]

Lol I did the exact same thing

[@Rachebart]

Lol i wasnt a kid anymore 😂

[@Dr._Orange]

I find the balancing in this game to be very fascinating. The enemies actually do deal a fixed amount of damage for each planet in the game, it's just that it's way higher than it probably should be. For instance, the cragmites in the final level on challenge mode do almost 900 points of damage. I think the reason it feels like they do a percentage of your health is that the balance in this game seems to be a lot more tightly designed to make sure the player stays as close to the intended difficulty curve as much as possible. Where the previous games let you diverge a bit from the intended balance if you didn't go for all crates in a level, kill all enemies, or do all the optional challenges, or if you did some extra grinding for bolts/experience making you overleveled, this game tries to keep you as close to the expected nanotech/weapon levels as possible, usually by giving out a bit more experience and bolts if you missed some in the earlier levels. It's just that the game is designed to make you die in 2-3 hits, even with the best armor available, which I must admit can feel quite cheap sometimes. Also, the game does hint at Talwyn getting captured on Sargasso. It's just that it's done through mid-gameplay dialogue that sometimes gets cut off by other mid-gameplay dialouge. :/

[@redpandarampage2191]

Nice pfp

[@dmas7749]

well that's a little better at least

[@Jacob.Snyder]

Honey, it's time for the really enjoyable monthly Ratchet and Clank video essay!

[@Dzzy123]

I really want Insomniac to wrap up Talwyn's character arc soon. If we find her father, Max Apogee, we could finally wrap up the entire "find the Lombaxes" saga. Max was last seen with Angela Cross so if we find him, we might find her as well.

[@ZeroDividesByYOU]

Love these long reviews and criticisms. I played all the original games on my friend's consoles at his house UNTIL Tools of Destruction and Crack in Time. I THOROUGHLY LOVED these games as a kid and even now. I truly love this game series but never even played Quest for Booty. I appreciate going back through all of these, and even though I was never going to get a PS4 or PS5, I'm very happy that the series is still going and that Rift Apart seems to be SO AWESOME and looks SO PRETTY. Thanks for all your hard work and effort making these! Can't wait to see more!

[@Ratchetti]

Quest for Booty was amazing imo, just wanted it to be longer xd

[@crispyjelly2485]

Did you end up playing the PC port?

[@ZeroDividesByYOU]

@@crispyjelly2485 I didn't know there was one! I did get the chance to play a little bit of Rift Apart on my friend's PS5 though

[@crispyjelly2485]

@@ZeroDividesByYOU right? It's on steam, a PS4/5 controller and a copy is probably better value then buying the whole console for one game. I'm going through and playing the PS3 games I didn't have a chance to play at the time so I can play rift apart, and I'm pretty excited for when I hit it

[@MasterKombatBro]

100% no lie that song for some reason at the credit start makes me tear up everytime. Maybe it's the dissonance or something. But it has a weird power over me

[@TheRealFTA]

2 hours? Damn, guess I’m skipping my son’s birthday party today!

[@TheGoldenBolt]

That's so weird, my dad didn't come to my birthday party today... d-dad?

[@mr.sunshine9295]

@@TheGoldenBolt that's weird, my dad also didn't come to my brother's birthday party today... B-brother

[@MrJayson204]

Fuck dem kids, me and the homies playing Ratchet and Clank all night.

[@Metalton95]

And he said he’d never make such a long video again in Ratchet 3’s Retrospective. So predictable 😎

[@bobbichn6629]

I've wondered for so long what the deal with the PS3 Ratchet games was. Interesting to see the struggles that went along with production. You say it well, every Ratchet game hits maybe not the bullseye youre expecting but neverless a bullseye somewhere. Keep up the retrospectives!

[@claytondykstra3301]

RAC1 was my first ps2 game and it became the first franchise of anything that I truly loved. Today, I'm a journalist who loves good research and behind the scenes content, so that probably puts me pretty close to the bullseye of your intended audience. And I so LOVE and appreciate these videos. To put my reaction to this video short: I think you're right but I don't like it. I 100% share your contention and fiery disappointment that Insomniac and the Future Saga took on this huge lore stories and then failed to do them justice or actually wrap them up. And it really stuck me painfully (as a writer) in the GC video that the studio plotted out the game without an actual writer. Gosh, so often I'm just left wondering...why?! Why did the games soften and lose their edge, why did the series waste away in the latter ps3 years and in the ps4 years, why does it seem like Insomniac gradually went with a younger intended audience as their fan base grew older (RAC2016 vs RAC1)?! And even after these videos and understanding the problems behind the scenes, they seem that much more avoidable. At the end of the day, though, I choose the 'better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all' approach. And a perspective change can do a lot. Story gaps can either be plot holes or space to apply some imagination. A huge story with no ending can mean years of fun dreams and conversations about what possible endings could look like. Extremely misplaced disco music credits can mean we get a good laugh about it a few years later. I sure got a laugh out of that mention! Regardless of how it all turned out, it was good enough (and also not good enough) for you and others to make videos like this and for people like me to watch them and simply enjoy seeing the thing we love getting talked about.. that it's still relevant.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

Spot-on, my friend. As critical as I am of specifically _how Future failed to achieve its own goals that it set,_ a lot of folks ended up missing that...y'know, I still really love these games for what they achieve anyway! But "game good" alone doesn't tell the whole story; we don't look at Mass Effect the same way after 3, or Game of Thrones the same way after Season 8, and I think there's a valuable perspective in acknowledging that hey, these games missed the very mark they were trying to set, despite being good anyway. After all, the fanbase just absolutely *trashes* the PS4 game for failing at its chief goals, despite that game otherwise being great fun too - if we're gonna do it in one spot, let's be fair and acknowledge that these games are _all_ great, but not A+ masterpieces.

[@Bordpie]

@@TheGoldenBolt I dunno, the way this video was put together made me feel like it was a terrible game with lots of shortcomings half the time, while I know for a fact that it's a good game from playing it several times (and plan to play it again on a plat marathon even though there are no trophies in this game) and that is general opinion of the reviewer anyway. It was kind of hard to watch the nitpicking for much of the video, which drowns out the positive elements. Talking about the knock on effects of the series ambitious and rushed development probably should have been explored fully in a separate video, rather than mixed into this retrospective, even if it is particularly relevent to this game, since it affected the whole future trilogy and beyond. This is the sort of thing which would be really interesting as a one off topic explored thoroughly in itself. What did go wrong and what are the key takeaways for game development in general. What *could* have been the full fleshed out games if they had time. *How* could it have been better than they are already, rather than just pointing out the holes in what was made. Perhaps Insomniac has taken on board many of its past mistakes which is why they are doing so well recently. I'm surprised they managed to produce what they did given the circumstances, every game seemed to have some hiccup along the way, and that is commendable in itself. If the situation were perfect then I'm sure we would have had better games, but that wasn't and rarely is the case. I think it's better to build anew, including repairing the old, rather than tearing it down. I have my own headcannon figured out for a lot of the inconsistencies in the lore, a lot introduced in the future series and the difficulty in tieing all the games together. Not yet having a conclusion to the future series set up is not a problem for me, just an unfortunate side effect of the poor performance of the late PS3 games and the 2016 game being hamstrung by the movie (I wouldn't be surprised if they just wanted to start over given all the issues); look now you made me nitpicky and critical of the series. Plot holes are opportunities to fill with new imagination. How satisfying will it be when it finally is tied up in a nice bow?

[@kaspergamer460]

I really hate Tachyon.... When you're trying to do a more serious epic story, you can't have a joke villain. He's supposed to be the guy who single-handedly orchestrated the defeat of the whole lombax race and killed Ratchet's father. Make him scary, portray him as a formidable threat. The "comedy" of Tachyon is so awkward because the story framing doesn't support it, and the jokes aren't even funny. Personally I don't even need Ratchet & Clank to be funny. If they want a more serious story, then I'd prefer it played straight without a bunch of forced random jokes.

[@BoydTheMilkmanX]

Yeah. That's how I found it. In Jak and Daxter for example I think they hit this balance pretty well: the story had lots of comedy but the core of the story remained serious and characters took it seriously. The entirity of Ratchet and Clank feels too much like a long poorly written excuse to tell bad jokes every two seconds and the jokes are all predictable. I don't think the games got me to laugh a single time; I just remember being bored watching the cutscenes whereas other games (J&D is an easy parallel purely because the pedigree of when both games came out etc) I can watch the cutscenes and be engaged every time./

[@ZanicaKnight]

I couldn't agree more

[@kirbytheartist3318]

I actually wouldn't mind Insomniac pulling A Crack in Time Nefarious and have Tachyon make a comeback, there's seriously alot of potential with him. Not to mention that Tachyon will have a excuse to be a total beast in a round 2 against Ratchet and Clank knowing that he has been stranded on another dimension for nearly 10 years now.

[@FlameOfUdun96]

@@BoydTheMilkmanX I disagree, the PS2 games were very funny

[@Slater2113]

I see I’ve found the no fun zone

[@aphelion7075]

I don't understand how you continue to pump out videos of this quality at such pace. Every single one if these retrospectives has managed to be thoroughly entertaining, and teach me things about games that I thought I knew everything about. These will be regular re-watches for me for years hahaha

[@TheGoldenBolt]

You're far too kind, my fr- Aphelion...huh, well, that's fitting! You're fat too kind, Aphelion, I really appreciate the nice words!

[@aphelion7075]

@@TheGoldenBolt I actually had forgotten that my username was named after Aphelion from this game. I miss that character in Rift Apart :( lol

[@aphelion7075]

It's actually quite interesting, as a kid I fell in love with the idea of Aphelion as a character, and just kept hoping they'd do something with it, and they never did. Kind of a shame now that you mention it.

[@Valtekken]

Honestly, for all its flaws and quirks and for all its differences compared to the OG quadrilogy...I still love the Future saga and wish we got a complete remastered package of ToD, QfB, ACiT and ITN. I haven't played those games in a long time and I'd love to have a reason to go back to them (that reason being trophies for the first two games and improvements for the other two). Next year is the 20th anniversary of the series, so maybe I'll get my wish then.

[@jumponeverything]

I was waiting for the usual "I'm a little tea pot" and I was not disappointed

[@atpyro7920]

Every time I hear it I die laughing.

[@ChristianFrates1997]

Tip me over and I’ll smash everything!

[@Vinman1509]

@@ChristianFrates1997 “he’s all twitchy and bug eyed”

[@thomasrincones4612]

The only 2 hour video essay on KZbin I will ever watch because I know you will deliver a well researched and fair assessment of a franchise that shaped my childhood. Thank you for sharing your love and passion for these games. I remember being 10 years old asking my parents to buy me the Japanese physical version of Quest for Booty (at that age I liked having the box/still do) because I needed something to hold me over till Crack in Time. The Future Saga (although not perfect) is still my favorite replays of the franchise, and seeing the dimensionator return in Rift Apart brought back some of my best memories. Abandoning Angela hurt, but as a kid I just moved on because I thought ghost pirates were the coolest.

[@PuNkY-fr]

AAA video. Thank you for this very cool retrospective I love to follow.

[@raymanien]

Oh hey Punky, didn't know you loved Ratchet and Clank.

[@AnarchyFoxMusic]

These are honestly my favourite videos on youtube, thank you so much for so much hard work going into a project that I never knew I always wanted

[@TheGoldenBolt]

Thanks so much for the kind words, my friend!

[@DisturbedBroski]

What I really like about your videos is its not just an examination of the game and its mechanics, but all its development history and all that. Great video, keep it up!

[@maestrofeli4259]

The thing about the grummelnet vendor was kinda funny, I never knew about that little detail lol Also consider putting a link to this video in the top comment of the deadlocked retrospective, it'll help some people find it more easily!

[@TheGoldenBolt]

I knew I forgot something during my pre-publish checklist, good shout!

[@maestrofeli4259]

@@TheGoldenBolt you're welcome!

[@littlebigx1106]

What I do like throughout the game is that Diaper Boy Tachyon is established through his legions of Drophyds and the announcer voice over the intercoms listing yet another weird dictatorship/authoritarian rule the citizens of that world must follow. It happens to almost all the planets you go to that Tachyon established his rule. That alone always gave me the sense, that while Tachyon was comical in his size and strenght, he was a strategical genius that pulled the strings behind the scenes (apart from the mustachio furioso thing, which was stupid yet hilarious) xD But yeah, while his encounters with the duo leave something to be desired, the effects he has on the locations you visit in these games is incredibly prevalent and it adds a lot to the character and the worldbuilding in my opinion.

[@BAIGAMING]

1:08:00 THANK YOU. That was an atrocious decision. Why have enemies deal a percentage of damage to you? What's the point of upgrading?

[@raze2012_]

Definitely sounds like a) a last minute scamble for endgame "balance" or b) a micommunication between the level and battle designers.

[@Gorophorge]

Boy I can't wait for the likely painful yet promising retrospective of my favorite game in the series, A Crack In Time. Especially since after seeing this my feeling for quest for booty went from "meh" to "I fucking hate you". I wish Insomniac would dabble with the space exploration of ACIT again, because the moon's are my favorite part of that game.

[@superspyjim]

TOD was my first ratchet and clank game and I loved it, I bought a crack in time and thats probably my favourite RaC game ever, nexus was alittle weaker but I still loved it. I grew up with the futer saga and dispite its flaws It will still be one of my favourite game series.

[@Hiihtopipa]

You can hear it even in the name ”nexus” every other has some sort of pun in the name ”up in arsenal” ”going commando” which is interesting to me. Like yeah lets not bother with the title coz we did not with the game.

[@marvelanddcretrospective]

@@Hiihtopipa tools of destruction and gladiator didn't have an innuendoes

[@Hiihtopipa]

@@marvelanddcretrospective tools of destruction? C'mon :D

[@Hiihtopipa]

@@marvelanddcretrospective you can't be that simple

[@marvelanddcretrospective]

@@Hiihtopipa eh it's kind of there if you really stretch it

[@gregorywilkinson5731]

Had no idea cronk and zephyr represented the xbox and the ps3. Gonna pay way more attention to their dialogue now

[@chimpmasterflex]

Crack in time is one of my favorites, if not my actual favorite, so eagerly looking forward to that video.

[@CantusTropus]

This is the first part of the Retrospective series where I never played the game in question as a child and thus have no nostalgia for it. I've always been curious about what happened to R&C between the games I loved as a kid and now, so I'm really looking forward to it!

[@corytricker7422]

As someone who grew up with the Ratchet games and has such fond memories of replaying them over and over, I really appreciate the amount of hard work and detail you put into these retrospectives. You definitely deserve way more subs on this channel.

[@graydentucci1463]

I’m so surprised you never mentioned that Emperor Tachyon as a whole was in fact the 3rd recipient of the the “Snow Beast” Award

[@giannigrand4928]

I check every few days to see if a new retrospective of one of my childhood games has been uploaded, really love how you go indepth and to see another fan of ratchet, keep going with this awesome content!

[@IsaqueReynaLuar]

I cannot believe I watched 2 hours of a guy talking about a game I've never even played... and enjoyed it. +1 sub

[@TheGoldenBolt]

I'm glad to have you on board, friend! But also, I do wanna say that if you have the means you should absolutely give the game(s) a shot yourself - as thorough as I try to be, nothing can replace experiencing something firsthand! (Especially when there are so many solid levels that I didn't discuss play by play, for the sake of avoiding repetition!)

[@IsaqueReynaLuar]

@@TheGoldenBolt Oh yeah, absolutely. I'm well aware that hearing about it and experiencing it are two different things, but it's gonna take a while before I get my hands on a copy of it. But I am watching a let's play of it, and so far I can say it looks pretty fun (And really pretty for the PS3)

[@damocles7406]

Half the dialogue? In exchange for Quest For Booty? Wow. I felt that pain in my soul.

[@thebrodator]

My favorite Ratchet and Clank game, though it was interesting to hear your criticisms

[@oxdaman1]

Honestly, the main takeaway I get from this is that the reason Tools of Destruction wasn't as good as it could have been is because all the higher-ups cared about was money. It wasn't the project made with love that most creators want to make, it was simply a rush job that most likely stressed the hell out of all involved. I didn't hate the ToD game, though I barely remember it, with the only thing I do remember being the crappy ending and dlc game. Still, this was an interesting watch. Great vid.

[@Drumpizza]

My excitement that you're almost to my favorite game in the series "A Crack In Time" cannot be understated. I have loved all of your videos in this series and I can't wait to watch all future ones.

[@goldensun03]

Love these retrospective videos. Honestly i just wish insomniac would just acknowledge in game lore wise that angela cross isnt a true lombax that shes a genetic hybrid in an attempt to bring back lombaxes.

[@raze2012_]

I don't mind either way lorewise. Leaving only 1 or 2 lombaxes left doesn't diminish what happened. Idk why Insomniac never just outright said "we forgot, we're sorry". Even the "we're sorry" line doesn't seem to have them admitting the real reason behind it. They seem so upforth about so many other worse things that happened back in the days.

[@flowerthencrranger3854]

Ah yes, a 2 hour analysis of the first game I ever played, time to get popcorn :)

[@GaaraN64]

I literally watched all your Ratchet and Clank videos in the last 2 days and i have to say you convinced me to play all of them again in order ^^ keep up the good work.

[@triledink]

People have mixed opinions on Tools of destruction and its leadup to the legendary game A crack in time. I have never had any problems with Tools of destruction. The switch between the ''seriousness'' in the lore of the future game made the game a bit more mature in my opinion, not saying that the ps2 games did not have it, but TJ fixman did such a great job giving the game a proper story compared to the group of people making up the story for the ps2 games, Though the switch between the lore of the ps2 games to ps3 games came with a bit of retconning, but I still appreciate all the hard work Insomniac put in to the future games. A crack in time is one of my favorite game of all time and Ratchet and Clank is my favorite playstation series ever made.

[@aerostrafe1075]

I don't know. I never really like to say adding "seriousness" makes anything more mature. It really just depends on whats done with that serious context. Tools doesn't do much with its serious aspects outside of have them there.

[@bigman3]

Holy shit.... 3 minutes in I thought we were halfway through the video, then the intro played! I am happily ready to spend the next 2 hours here

[@MrMarioschannel]

Your videos and retrospectives are criminally underrated and deserve so much praise, attention, and credit for all the hard work and research you strive to do for all of it man. Generally get excited when I see a new video of yours in my subscription box, found your channel sometime during 2020 quarantine and glad I did keep up the great work man I'll be rooting for you!

[@DominoPivot]

This was a harsh but fair look at the series. Thanks for the ambitious video ;P

[@BensyBens]

Tools Of Destruction is not only my favorite game in the franchise it’s also one of my top 3 favorite games. I know the flaws of ToD and the rest of the future saga but i got good memories from this franchise from the first games on ps2 to the future era games to today with rift apart. ToD is the game that’s make me stay with Playstation, since i was a little kid i was a Playstation guy my first video game was spyro 2 on the ps1 and my first ps2 game was ratchet 2 but I’ve played the first game at friends before i got my console back in 2003 and i got my ps3 back in march 2009 on my birthday with street fighter 4, metal gear solid 4 and ratchet & clank tools of destruction. The first game i ever got physically with my own money was quest for booty (and a physical copy because sie europe published games in my country). Yeah i know tj fixman made a lot of bs but i think ToD is one of his best work after mess like A4O or the movie and the movie tie-in game. There are some of stuff you didn’t mention in this video like the connection of this game with extreme makeover: home edition with a Captain James cheat skin for mr zurkon or the secret skin of prisoner ratchet from SAC that’s you unlock by a cheat code. And i know quest for booty is not a fan favorite but i like it just recently i beat it in hard mode and that’s was challenging. Maybe we can disagree with stuff on the video but I’m glad you did this retrospective for my favorite video game franchise and talk about this game because when people talking about ratchet & clank people always gonna talk about the ps2 games, ps4 movie tie-in or rift apart. Without tools of destruction we didn’t got a crack in time (people still calling it the best in the franchise) we didn’t got nexus and we didn’t got rift apart. All i want to say thank you Golden Bolt. Your content always make me happy and appreciate the good of the community of the ratchet fandom.

[@erikfinki949]

I only watched the intro and I can't bring my head around. You deserve so much more praise for your videos.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

I appreciate the kind words, my friend!

[@TayTheNeonNeko]

Amazing video as always, your videos always give me a greater appreciation for these games I love and I love learning about the developing of each one. This video does make me wonder what could have been for the Ratchet story had everything gone as originally planned.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

If I have any say, we'll find out _exactly_ what the Future saga was meant to look like initially! Whether I get a say is a different story lol

[@Funcijej]

Re: Angela Rivet tells kit that she wonders where Angela is since the last time they broke out on the prison revisit

[@TerrorOfTalos]

Rivet was actually by herself when she said that which I feel was intentional. I still can't tell if it should be taken as a hint or a joke for people more knowledgeable on the series characters.

[@Dzzy123]

Angela was last seen with Talwyn's dad, Max Apogee. I really hope we find Max so we can finally wrap up the plotlines introduced in Tools of Destruction.

[@MrDegan2]

another fantastic installment, the level of detail you go into is commendable. out of curiosity will you be covering the PSP games? I know they are very much the red-headed step child of ratchet and clank but would love to know the background on them

[@TheGoldenBolt]

The PSP games are on the docket, although not right away! I skipped over them specifically to give myself time to get the full development story. Doing it with the Insomniac games was an incredible amount of work, but I at least had ideas of where to start. The only starting points I have for interviews and research with the PSP games...are actually a result of some of the interviews I did for Ratchets 2 and 3, funnily enough, so I've got a lot of work cut out for me!

[@senorbill374]

​@@TheGoldenBolt yo that's epic looking forward to that Keep up the good work and take all the time you need :^)

[@xcv625]

This whole series has been a spectacular watch, thank you for putting these together! The whole story behind Tools of Destruction and the Future series is so fascinating, I had no idea the production ran into so many unusual problems.

[@waldevv]

I absolutely loved the PS3 ratchet and clank games, even the weird ones like all4one. A Crack in Time is an absolute masterpiece, nostalgia aside I think it's my favorite of the whole series. The controls in these games are just so smooth but they refined them to perfection in CiT and story-wise it's my favorite. Whenever I have more time I am definitely completing the entire series starting from the first game all the way to the PS4 version since I don't have a PS5

[@ryanharris9210]

"We see him fumbling or falling over under the weight of his big.. fucking head." That line had me actually spit out coffee the way you sunk it to the video, well done. Super well done video, amazing research. Really glad someone like you spends the time to make quality videos on my favourite childhood gaming series.

[@Alexjep93]

This retrospective series is so well researched, thought out and put together. 👏 keep up the good work, I'm waiting eagerly for a crack in time

[@MajaEmilieWinkler]

Personally this is where the franchise loses me, with the drastic change in tone, style and writing. However it is really really cool to see the development from your videos and certainly gives me respect for this game! Thank you for all the effort you put into these theyre currently my favourite youtube series to follow :)

[@KaiserMattTygore927]

"Personally this is where the franchise loses me, with the drastic change in tone, style and writing." Same, this was the last one I played before the reboot came out and that was even worse.

[@Rachebart]

@@KaiserMattTygore927 yeah same later when the reboot comes out i played the whole series again. First ps2 games and than i started the future saga with tools of destruction. I enjoyed it. But i dont like the future saga as much i love the ps2 games. And bruhhhh the ratchet design gots worse and worse. Crack in time for me have the best design.

[@felman87]

Totally agree with you on there being kind of a tonal whiplash with Future's ending. Granted, my suggested fix isn't as grand as yours. So, right now the ending goes from Happy at Ratchet succeeding, Sadness from Clank being abducted and back to Happy again with the credits. My fix would just combine the two Happy sections together and then finish things up with a Sad. So you have the jubilation at having defeated Tachyon, credits, then at the end of the credits, you have Clank being abducted. That way you go Happy, Happy Sad and it flows better. That's essentially what Marvel movies do (though Future came out in 2007, before any of them would come out). Finish the plot, run credits, then you're free to set up any sequels through some teasers that only the dedicated who bothered to watch the credits would get.

[@BlueTurn]

I just be thus game last month. I like it quite alot. It was my first playthrough of it. I really liked it compared to all the other ratchets I had played. Im currently playing through crack in time. Cant wait for your video on that

[@shisuko3112]

Your channel has revived my love for the series. Repaired a PS3 a while ago and am currently replaying all of the R&C games. As a kid I've always wanted to play next gen Ratchet and Clank on the PS3 and now, even though it's a bit late, I am still enjoying the games. I do see the cracks you're talking about and the shattered potential of a Crack in Time.

[@TheLetsPlayBaseballCurse]

Hi! I'm new to the channel and recently watched the retrospectives on the Ratchet series, culminating in this one. I've learned a LOT about the development of the franchise I love, and while a lot of it hasn't been fun to hear about, it's been necessary to hear. Thank you for this video and series, and I can't wait to learn more.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

To that end, it's not always fun to write or record, either, but like you said it's necessary! Plus, sometimes I've got to put aside my own personal stances too, in the name of taking a fair stance at points - so in another world I'd very much be the guy in the comments pointing out that a lot of it can be nitpicky lol. I'm glad to have you along for the journey, my friend!

[@pummelweed784]

In defense of Tools of Destruction, Ratchet and Clank honestly never took itself too seriously, it was always about wise cracking humor and characters designed around exaggerated stereo types. The main villain turning out to be a big baby with bug guns is completely on point for this franchise.

[@terryh.9238]

whoa... i did not expect that spiciness for quest for booty. i guess when you frame it as it was supposed to follow up on the cliff hanger from tools of destruction, then yeah, it's a complete failure. but i played that game as a kid and had a great time with it. to me it was like a more chilled out version of a traditional ratchet game, and at that i think it succeeds really great. it doesn't feel like the entire universe is at stake which every other game in the series sorta felt like thus far (except for maybe deadlocked, but that game was buckwild in it's own way) and it's just a nice short game for me and it was nice to play something in between the gap between crack in time and tools of destruction. it mightn't have a challenge mode but i remember the hard mode kicking my ass too! regardless i think your take is valid, because my opinion of the game didn't take into account a lot of the context i was unaware of. seeing the game as the reason why TOD and ACIT were underbaked in some areas, yeah then i'd start to feel resentful of it. really this whole retrospective gave me so many new ways to view all these games that i love and to me feel like the most comprehensive reviews of them on youtube. so that's awesome.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

In a vacuum, I do enjoy Quest for Booty! But when I think about a finished version of Crack in Time, which we never exactly got because of one overly-excited optimistic Insomniac suggesting co-op? Man, I just can't separate the two anymore deep down, it stings!

[@scotty2hotty415]

I absolutely love these types of videos, and I love your videos specifically because they break my favorite gaming franchise down to atoms! It's super interesting to see since I was just a kid playing these games and never looked at them deeper than "this game is super pretty and fun!" Keep up the great work man! Thank you again!!

[@blu3ntv]

id like it if the ark after ratchet finding the lombaxes is complete, we get a story ark about finding apogie and finding out what happened to angela, they can fix all their past mistakes, mention how ratchet thought female lombaxes had no tail, since the pirate radio said so, and then giving a backstory to how angela just lost her tail, they can say that forgetting angela was just a coping mechanism for ratchet. it wouldn't have to be a long story ark, even just one game would be fine, but i'd like to see angela back, and for talwin to accomplish her mission, and i?d like to see what those 2 went through even if its lust illustration like the cutcene where rivet lost her arm

[@Hengagenga]

I just wanna say I really like watching these long in depth videos about games I like and I appreciate you doing these in the high quality you do

[@danrosalina]

Oh no, this is the first I'm hearing of Crack in Time being cut down and now I'm a little bit sad. One of my favourite games could've been even better? Hopefully Rift Apart's selling well enough to give the franchise a second wind.

[@stevehenry7245]

There is actually another mention in-game of the fact Tachyon was who created the space pirates. There's some parts in ToD where the pirates can be heard singing shanties and one at the Ublik Passage touches on that. I'll quote abit of it here: "Life can be lonely when sailin' the skies, searchin' each planet for the lost Lombax prize. 'Ol Percy that built us dost love us no more, and one of these days we'll settle the score."

[@NoName-tt9ye]

I actually bought Quest for Booty not knowing that it is only 2hours long. You can imagine my disapointment when the end credits rolled :C

[@motherlove8366]

I got it for Christmas.

[@AD-nv7nw]

Thank you for putting so much love into my favorite video game franchise of all time

[@abdallahali2]

I was literally playing tool of destruction just 30mins ago but your vids are AWESOME

[@Wolfstarzan]

I hate so much that ToD is the only Ratchet and Clank game from PS3 that's not on PSNow and I don't have a PS3 here. Hope so much for a port or something for the 20th anniversary 😢

[@abdallahali2]

@@Wolfstarzan play it on ps3 emulator if you have a powerful pc

[@BlueMagicite]

Wow, thanks for these retrospectives. I'm really glad you put in the effort to get to know the development history of these games. The stories that make these games are often tied to the dev teams that work on them, so hearing about the development history helps in reminding people of the human element that goes into making all these games. And honestly, it's just fascinating getting to know the struggles, and ultimately the achievement, of seeing a group of people get a project out. The 90s and 2000s platformer boom may have saturated the market, but it'd be a bit of lie to say that there weren't some ambitious and earnest creative attempts by many eager dev teams. Platformers are such an odd yet great opportunity to allow for a game's world to be explored and the attempts of that era, at least in retrospect, were admirable.

[@isaacgruver7061]

TGB: Think of a universe where Quest for Booty never existed Me, who never played it: Done

[@TheStubbzy]

Tools Of Destruction is my 3rd favorite Ratchet and Clank. When I first played it I was very impressed with how it looked, handled and story told. The pirates were easily my favorite characters (along with Captain Qwark) in the game. Quest For Booty was worth getting just for that big reveal at the end.

[@11zacharyl]

Honestly the future game’s are my favorite in the series. I understand this isn’t a popular opinion and gif fair reasons but they’ll always have a place in my heart

[@melaniemisa2577]

Thank you so much for making these retrospectives. This background info is incredibly interesting and you present your opinions in such an engaging way that I didn't care that the video was 2 hours long! There's so many little things that make me see these games in a different light and give me a lot to reflect on. I'm really looking forward to the Crack in Time retrospective!

[@AGENTRITEN]

I actually really liked the ending, my heart hurt when Clank disappeared!! Yes the credit music was a bad choice but that hopeless feeling made me even more excited for Crack in time easily the best game in the series!!❤

[@roooft2446]

Here's my theory on Angela In ACIT we hear a news rebort about Angela Cross that gives us info on what she's up to now. The news report tells how Angela was seen in Max Apogee's ship which raises the question, Why was she in his ship. If you didn't know Max Apogee was searching for the dimensionator before he was presumingly killed by space pirates. What I think happened though is Angela was able to save him from the Pirates and the Pirates wanting to not admit that they were defeated just told everyone that they had killed Max. Max and Angela then went to go and find the Dimesionator and with the help of Angela opening the door to it (Which can nly be opened by a lombax) They were able to use the diensionator and find the rest of the lombax's. Now this is where This one theory splits into two possible paths. One where Max is alive and one where he is dead. The alive theory is that he went with Angela into the lobax dimension leaving Talwyn behind hoping that she would come searching for him and find her way there. The other theory is that Max didn't go with Angela to the lombax dimension and instead went home in his ship but was killed by space pirates when going home as revenge for humiliating them. This could also explain why his ship was found in space autopilot with no one in it.

[@ssjduelistDD]

This game looks so clean. I think i actually prefer the character models here to Rift Apart.

[@CarbyGuuGuu]

This was when Ratchet retained his original height, before All 4 One made him shorter.

[@Dzzy123]

A Crack in Time has the best Ratchet model in the series. Now Ratchet looks more child-like.

[@soundbreaker-sk8lh]

This was my main introduction to the series, I played a bit of my uncle's PS2 games, but this was the first game I finished and wanted to complete, so you. Can imagine I have a soft spot for this game

[@hattoripool1533]

I really hope they give us enhanced remastered versions of the ps2 and ps3 ratchet and clank games for the ps5

[@waspywasp451]

I would love that so much. Some kind of port for the PS4 and PS5 will finally let me play these games lol

[@Qardo]

Well, you kind of play these games on PS4 and PS5 (if you have one as they are rarer than a Lombax) with PS Now. A streaming service that is rather robust and extremely worth the money. Just need to make sure you have some good internet. As most games may need to stream than just download and play.

[@BensyBens]

@@Qardo the problem is the ps2 games and tools of destruction are not on ps now

[@Qardo]

@@BensyBens Well, that is true. As the version on PS Now is the PS3 port.......and we all know now it was a rather terrible port.

[@BensyBens]

@@Qardo the 20th anniversary of the franchise is next year everything can happen. We can get re-releases of the ps2 era and the future saga on ps4/ps5 as a collection or get the jak & daxter treatment with digital emulated ps2 titles with limited run games physical copies or nothing. The ps2 hd collection thats released on ps3 and vita will never gonna come to ps now.

[@P1NKPVNK_]

Great retrospective! Cant wait for the 8 month long A4O/FFA retrospective after the 5 hour long A Crack in Time retrospective!

[@kirbytheartist3318]

Tools of Destruction, the beginning of a new era for Ratchet and Clank on the PS3 :)

[@Rachebart]

Or better to say a softreboot

[@kirbytheartist3318]

@@Rachebart But these games are meant to be canon to the originals.

[@Rachebart]

@@kirbytheartist3318 yes i know thats why i said (Soft) reboot. Because we have no context of the last game.

[@kirbytheartist3318]

@@Rachebart Oh okay.

[@ReesetYT]

Enjoying these giant uploads. Nice work.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

Thank you my friend, I'm glad you're enjoying 'em!

[@user-it7te2sc6h]

This could have easily been solved by making just one game, instead of seven.

[@offeryoursoul]

I’m glad to hear the contextualized background story to why I had always felt something was a tad off with this game. I loved it even as an adult, but did have some of these moments seem weird to me. Always love to learn these things as I’m moving forward in the playlist.

[@arijan-itanmuratovic7495]

I´m certain this WILL be your best video essey so far and all of them have been bangers!

[@yojoehojo4291]

From what I remember hearing in the developer commentary material for the Original three titles by Mike Stout and Tony Garcia, they detailed a few things that you seem to not know about: They started work on the engine that was used for the Future series and any other title they could make near the end of the 2nd game and ramped up the number of people once Ratchet and Clank 3 was near its end and this was because they were sick of having to work in the messy way that they did back then with how things weren't exactly unified for everyone. Ratchet and Clank 2 and 3 were both in pre-production during Ratchet and Clank 1 even if both of those weren't very far into it. I know a lot about this series due to doing a lot of research into it a few years back and constantly revisiting that knowledge well to ensure that I didn't miss anything from the material that's been out on KZbin from Insomniac, other critical thinkers such as yourself, and also on various other websites within the written form because I have been wanting to make video games that are inspired by many of the games I used to grow up playing. Plus I have considered making a retrospective series of sorts that goes over things that videos, like yours, might miss or not entirely explain, as a way to document the entirety of it all.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

Well, no - what you're referring to wasn't the game engine, it was the Luna scripting system that I mentioned in the Ratchet 3 video! I've spoken to Stout, Garcia, and programmers Tim Trzepacz and ToD's lead gameplay programmer Moo Yu about this directly - one of many who worked directly on Tools's engine during pre-production in 2005 (not 2003). I wrapped back around to each of them a couple times, because everybody had slightly different experiences with exactly when Luna became a thing and I wanted to get the exact explanation of it with regards to Ratchet 3's production, but it was never the game engine. Luna provided way to give designers a bit of agency when working on level setups without having to hover over their partner programmers' shoulders, and a way to smooth out the very outdated back and forth that bottlenecked them during the absurdly fast 5-8 week level production blocks. Designers could then more easily set up the enemies and objects without needing a programmer to go in and either copy/paste code, or rewrite the code again for enemies for each and every level (as was the case with the early games when enemies repeated). Essentially, it was a way to take the weight off of the programmers by allowing designers to pseudo-code even if they didn't have any major programming experience - which worked in their favor by the time they were low on programmers for Tools thanks to burnout, and couldn't hire enough to fill in the gaps! Likewise, I mentioned in the Ratchet 2 video that that game started pre-production 5 months before Ratchet 1 came out, based on positive focus tests that got a sequel greenlit historically early, and as I noted throughout each of these videos, each game has started early pre-production very early on into the next as far back as Ratchet 2, when the teams began rolling forward towards Resistance 1 several years ahead of time!

[@yojoehojo4291]

@@TheGoldenBolt Thank you for the information, I suppose I don't know as much as I wish I did haha. May I ask a follow up question to you then? For the PS2 era, my research pointed me towards the idea that Al Hastings took MAYA and hamfistedly made that into an 'engine' via using some code that the team at Insomniac got from Naughty Dog and admittedly I can't find all of the resources that made me believe this anymore, my question to you is the following: I've read a lot and heard a lot of various things like "Ratchet and Clank was made by taking the Jak and Daxter engine because Insomniac was so close to Naughty Dog.", "They used the engine from Kinetica and you can tell because of the lighting!", "They used Unreal because a fan remade their work in that engine so that clearly means they used that engine!" and none of which I very much believe. I think its true that they took some code that was rather hard to understand from Naughty Dog, but that's not proof they used the same Engine. I think the Vertex Lighting techniques might be similar to the techniques used by the Kinetica game and even engine, but that's not proof of anything really because Vertex Lighting is a rather simplified approach any game dev can do. I most definitely think a fan recreating something in Unreal is just a fan spending a ridiculous amount of time figuring out what feels correct for character physics which certainly means that it is in no way proof that they did anything in Unreal. What does your knowledge pool exactly point you towards in the regard of the tools that were used for making the PS2 era titles? Thanks in advance.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

As far as actual tools by name? All I've got for you there is Maya, but I can elucidate a bit with regards to the more general thought there at least! Insomniac staff has added more detail to the "Naughty Dog engine" story as time has passed (and as they've clearly gotten more frustrated that everybody gives another studio credit for their own work!), but the most complete version as I understand it is that Naughty Dog had specific rendering and streaming tech - the stuff that allowed Jak 1 to render vast distances without needing to mask with any fog or direct, unmasked load times, for example. That tech was written in LISP, which only the single programmer who wrote it could understand and fix. Al Hastings, being a man who can speak to machines apparently, took this specific set of code (I wouldn't even say it's an "engine" in any traditional sense - it's more of a specific process), he made tweaks and improvements to it, and most importantly, he wrote the whole thing in C so that *everybody* could understand it. This was then passed back to Naughty Dog for use in Jak II onwards. The Kinetica thing, as far as I've ever sourced, is just this really weird Wikipedia thing that has no basis anywhere else. The only source back to Kinetica is a completely unrelated IGN article talking about Santa Monica Studio's history - which never mentions other games at all or implies that Kinetica became its own engine. I'm almost 100% certain at this point that somebody just read an article wrong in like 2010, put it on Wikipedia, and it's just treated as fact now forever. Jak and Ratchet were both developed on their own, separate, in-house engines built by their coding gurus like Al Hastings. Though like you indicated, there can be some heavy quotes on "engines," because so much of it was slapdash work - Ratchet 1's level system was denoted by actual Hot Wheels cars they had in the office - if you had a certain car, you were working on that level. So much work was copied and pasted around, even the Hero (main character) programming was turfed to different folks in each game, as those who had more pull tried to not take on such critical roles since they were moving into more oversight-specific roles. Tim Trzepacz had mentioned to me that whoever did Hero programming in 1 (I think Brian Hastings, but I'd have to check the interview transcript) tried to have him do 2's for example. And you already know stories such as the "If level 7, make the level snow" hard-code that somebody had put into Ratchet 2 specifically to make snow work on Siberius, which then broke level 7 in Ratchet _3_ because 3 worked off of 2's base!

[@yojoehojo4291]

@@TheGoldenBolt Thanks! I didn't know about the car thing and I had a laugh reading that! Everything else was pretty much everything I had known already haha. There are even sources of various websites that are supposed to be accurate listings for what engine was used where and nearly every time I checked them they said "Kinetica Engine", but when I'd go down to their sources they'd just list themselves. It was hilarious and clearly just adding to false rumors that were spread from I suppose that IGN article and Wikipedia page.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

Absolutely - if you want more info about that car thing specifically, look into the gamasutra postmortem for Ratchet PS4, written by the two main directors of that game. It sheds so much light on the game, just as the Ratchet 3 and Tools ones did before it, and it makes you realize that yeah, they did know about the issues present in that game well before anybody knew the game was a thing! But you can't fix everything, or most things, in game dev sadly, so no matter what there'll always be a few what-ifs.

[@ColinLack]

This is my personal favourite Ratchet game, with Rift Apart as my #2.

[@TheWordPlay]

Another great analysis! When I was younger I remember being enamored by an HD Ratchet and Clank, so when TOD came out I was floored by the visuals. But with each playthrough I felt something was off but couldn't put my finger on it til this video (the slower run speed compared to the PS2 games, the lack of multiplayer, back to back cliffhangers, etc) It blows my mind how Insomniac was able to release anything after hearing these behind the scenes development stories. It does leave me wondering what they could make without having to face crunch

[@TheGoldenBolt]

First, thank you! And second, the short answer to what Insomniac could make without crunch is Spider-Man (presumably) and Rift Apart! Based on the developers that spoke out a few months back, we know with relative confidence that Rift Apart was crunch-free (at least, unless and until somebody speaks out saying otherwise, which you would anticipate would've happened given how some former team members spoke out about upper Insomniac staff wanting to make Rivet a bit more...let's say "eye candy" initially). I'd think that Spidey would likely be in the same boat, since it feels and seems like they've finally gotten their production process down to the science they wanted years ago, but obviously we can't confirm that without more research.

[@HipnikDragomir]

37:25 brilliant connection/pacing here. Your essays are fantastic, even if I don't agree 100% of the time

[@RedUmbreon40]

I always thought that Aphelion was very underexplored. She had so much potential!

[@Orion9411]

Being a Talwyn fan is endless agony.

[@EngineEconomics]

This game will always have a special place in my heart as my favorite ratchet game. Perhaps purely on nostalgia alone. Christmas vacation of 2007, all I did was play this game! It was my biggest dream to get a PS3 at that time and this game was absolutely euphoric especially after I had played Up Your Arsenal at least 100 times. All things considered I think it’s an amazing ratchet experience. I love your series on this by the way, I’ve been waiting so long for this one to drop!

[@GamingToups]

I'm so surprised they never released a Future trilogy remaster for PS4

[@Wolfstarzan]

Hopefully it will be something for the 20th anniversary. I mean Rift Apart have so much planets from ToD.

[@aidenburgess217]

just realised you only have 34k subs and my jaw litterally dropped, I thought you were atleast over 100k, nearing 1mil

[@dapperfan44]

I just want David Bergeaud to come back and infuse the Ratchet soundtracks with that "Thug-Leader Snivelak Boss," "Obani Draco" energy. And make the slower tunes like Obani Gemini, Planet Mukow etc.

[@johnnybacklog]

I don't love Tools of Destruction, but I actually liked the cliff hanger. At the time it was mysterious and added a layer to the Zoni. A layer that I wanted to peel back in the next game. One thing I like about this video is the general hyperbolic description of the fan base's opinions or thoughts. Perhaps we were just in different circles, but no one even cared about Ratchet in mine after UYA. Good game, bad game, bad cliffhanger, good cliffhanger, whatever. There was a general lack of care about the entire franchise from the "fans" I knew. I think most fans jumped off board with the tonal change here and didn't even care if the next game followed up a cliffhanger or not. I kind of like how this video makes it seem like the world cared about Ratchet as much as I did. Looking forward to the ACiT video. I consider it my favorite game in the series after UYA. Excited to hear your thoughts on it.